Tommy Nation

By installing the Media Control Plugin for Vista Media Center by Damien Bain-Thouverez, you can finally play back video files with subtitles, especially files using the Matroska container format (MKV). Multiple subtitles support, multiple audio streams support, FFDShow settings tweaking, and much much more is enabled.

The plugin can even hook on to the remote control driver and enable access to customizeable special functions and shortcuts when using a Media Center compatible remote control. There’s even a newly added feature that enables Windows Live Messenger integration. I haven’t tested this one myself yet, though.

If this is just what you’ve been looking for, then head on over to the homepage and download it now! Be sure to read the requirements section carefully before you install it.

Thank you Damien for this great plugin! Please show your support by donating to him if you find it useful.

Contrary to what we’re used to with DVDs, not all Blu-Ray movies are region code protected.

There’re a lot of Blu-Ray player owners (read: PS3 owners) out there, but most don’t know what movies are region free, and many don’t even know that this is as common as about 50% of all releases!

Well, thanks to the Lies Inc Blu-Ray blog you can find out exactly what Blu-Ray titles should be safe to import for your HD viewing pleasure.

Quick reference guide to Blu-Ray Regions:

• Region A: North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
• Region B: Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
• Region C: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mainland China, Pakistan, Russia, Central and South Asia.

AnyDVD HD enables you to watch your HD-DVD or Blu-Ray movies region-free and over a digital display connection without HDCP compliant graphics card and HDCP compliant monitor or flatscreen TV.

The creators of AnyDVD recently released a new version of AnyDVD HD which enables support for movies with the latest security measures, such as the Transformers HD-DVD, as well as touting the ability to ”Playback your discs on your PC with PowerDVD Ultra, which otherwise do not run (titles released by Studio Canal, The Weinstein Company, Kinowelt, Optimum Releasing)”, as one of the key selling points of their latest version.

Probably the most popular feature however, is decryption of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies. This enables ripping your movie titles for safe storage or to convert them into smaller size portable versions.

Click here to download the latest version of AnyDVD HD (beta) from Free-Codecs.com.

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